Behind the Scene: Gloria and Ms. Jones Walk Into the Woods

Questions about the imagination can be tough to answer. The most famous hard question people ask authors is, Where did you get the idea for the story? The most honest answer any author can give to this question is, The idea happened inside my head. Which is not very interesting to anyone.

Luckily, there are other questions that are easier and more fun to talk about, and that’s what gave me the idea for this post. As a writer, I have thoughts about lots of the scenes in the Casey Grimes books. What made them fun, what made them hard or easy to write, bits and pieces that you, the reader, may even have missed.

In this episode of Behind the Scene, we take a look at an early moment in The Mostly Invisible Boy. We’ll hit the action beats and, more importantly, what’s going on under the surface. Plus a line that made some people LOL for the wrong reasons.

We’ll also struggle through the experience of me recording audio for the first time in years. I’ll be honest. I didn’t want to record in my closet—but next time, I may have to. Before you jump in, here’s a picture from my son Asher to set the stage.

“By the time Gloria found Daddy’s light, the woods were huge dark cutouts, full of whispers and small screams.”